Nerris sloshes through the water towards the creature, but can't get a grip on it. Whatever this thing is lashes at you with its tail...
...scratching you, but managing to dose you with a bit of poison.
It thrashes wildly to try and escape Orrias' grasp...
...but can't quite get out of his grip!
"Don't let it go!" Indra shouts as she runs/swims/whatevers towards it.
Grimly hanging on to the thrashing creature, Orrias struggles to get his other hand around its neck.
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Pip draws a blank. The agitated creature is unlikely to be susceptible to most of his magic trickery, and he dare not hurl any fire or acid while Orrias has the wretched creature in his grasp. Flopping into the water to try and help wrestle the creature back to solid ground is even less appealing.
"Don't struggle! My friend there is the greatest hugger in all of Kintargo!" Pip cups his hands over his mouth and calls to the impish creature. "Just relax and succumb to the hug!"
Orrias clutches hard to the creature and pins it solidly up against the statue of Calistria! The elf recognizes this creature as an imp, a denizen of hell, thrashing about and trying to escape his bonds.
It give Pip the most scathing look possible, but shakes off the effect as it continues to struggle, fruitlessly, against Orrias' hold. You have it at your mercy - what do you do?
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As swiftly as she can, Indra moves up next to Orrias and holds her silver dagger against the creature's throat (not Orrias'). "Give me one good reason not to slit your foul throat right now!"
(Imps don't count as humanoid so she doesn't get the bonus +5, sigh)
Pausing a moment to catch his breath, Orrias glares at the creature pinned in his grasp. ”An imp, unless I miss my guess. A concerning development, Indra if you could knock it would I would be grateful.”
Nerris staggers a bit from being hit by creature. Thinking about the situation she starts to sob a bit. Looking around at everyone she says," Was that imp here the entire time? Spying on us. Are we going to have to go into hiding?"
"A relocation may be necessary," Orrias agrees in an even voice. "We don't know what it saw, what it reported, or who sent it. Even if we kill it its masters will surely notice when their servant goes missing. Once it's unconcious we'll figure out next steps."
Alexite pauses at the edge of the water, arms folded. "...It seems like you two have this in hand, and I paid good money for these clothes."
Grumbling, Orrias chokes the imp until it passes out and then sloshes his back to dry land. "It seems we have some hard decisions to make," the elf observes sourly as his boots squelch with every step.
You are able to knock it unconscious, and get some time to chat together before it comes awake again.
After it calms down, it looks at each of you with dead seriousness, and then, in a tiny, imperious voice, spits out in common, Fine. Better this than dead on the prime material. What next, mortals?
Orrias is extremely concerned by this development. He assumes that the imp has a handler who it reports to, so either it has already passed on information (an anonymous tip to send those guards our way maybe? They didn't seem to know what they were looking for) or that handler will soon notice when their spellcaster imp spy never shows back up. Orrias thinks the group should start looking for a new base right away.
As far as our prisoner goes: what if our best liars were disguised as Chelish agents? We claim that while the imp was unconscious the base was raided by a brute squad and the rebels have been hauled off. We then demand to know what the imp thought it was doing here and trick it into giving information to its supposed allies. Thoughts?
Fortunately Indra is conversant in infernal and spits her own string of filth back at the imp. To be fair, that's probably how devils say hello anyway.
"Now you get to tell us all about your foul little life, particularly the recent part. Who do you work for and how long have you been watching us? And don't bother trying to lie." She plays with her silver dagger a little to let him know she means to hurt him any time he should try it.
(+size bonus?)
A few quick adjustments to the uniforms used during their Saltworks caper soon has Orrias (and any other members of the group who wish to help) looking like Thrune agents. The plan is relatively simple: have on of the guards shake the imp awake, and then behave like Dotari who just raided and arrested the "seditious cell" but haven't decided what to do with the imp yet and try to provoke the devil into giving away valuable intelligence.
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Pip does his best to assist with the scheme. Although he is glad that the impish creature has been subdued, he is now intimidated by the prospect of turning his creativity to disguise.
Alexite shrugs on the uniform. "If we're gonna keep using these, maybe I should get it tailored," he says with a grin. "'S a little tight in certain areas..."
"Im going to ask the rest of our crew if they've seen any suspicious while they've been down here. Also, it won't hurt to give them a heads up about this situation...."
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Adding a little putty to his eyes and ears (along with an adjusted hairdo) to look human instead of elven, Orrias takes a breath and marches crisply over to the crate where the imp lay bound and gagged. After staring down at the creature for a long moment, expression blank, the faux Thrune lieutenant tugs the gag from the imp's mouth.
"Fascinating," he drawls, with a hint of Egorian finishing school in his accent. "Of all the little knick-knacks and curiosities in this den of insurgent fools, I wasn't expecting one of Hell's little errand-boys all trussed up like a goat bound for supper."
He lets a little sneer through before seeming to recover his poise. Tugging the gloves from his hands one after the other he places them in the pocket of his uniform as his expression towards the devil hardens. "You're not one of ours, imp, or we'd have been briefed. Make it worth my while and this raid might just become a rescue mission as well, and your obvious failure will be remain our little secret."
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Alexite leans into his role with enthusiasm, opening the imp's prison and gasping in "surprise" as he sees the imp.
"'Ere! Lieutenant! There's one o' them li'l red helpers in this here bag!" Passing it off quickly to Orrias, he goes over to Indra and stands over her, scowling. "Trust yer blue-skinned, freakish rebel likes to keep one o' the true servants o' Hell in weird bag bondage like this! Shameful!"
It's unclear what the accent is meant to be.
The imp coughs as the gag is removed from its mouth, then hisses at you. Her wide, sharp-toothed mouth looks like it would usually land in an evil grin, and her long, curly black hair would reach to her toes. Curiously, she only has one horn emerging from her forehead - most imps would have two.
Impudent mortal! she shrieks, her tiny voice ringing in the chamber. Let me free! I was not here for you fool Dottari. I serve house Sarini - these rebellious miscreants have my contract in their paperwork, and I can't get far enough away from it to get someone in here to help me. If you serve this city, you will find it and deliver it to House Sarini at once. Know this, if you cross me, Asmodeus will hold your soul one day, and I will personally attend you when you arrive! Now, loose my bonds and let me help you find the contract. It is magically concealed to hide its contents - you'll need my help to get it!"
With that, her tirade... slows, but doesn't stop. As she waits for your response, she seems to be talking to herself in slight whispers, looking left and right as she addresses each side of her own personal argument.
Orrias laughs unkindly at the imp. "I'm to merely take your word for it, am I? Our first lesson on denizens of Hell in academy was this: devils lie. Words are wind, imp. If you are indeed bound to stolen property then prove your words and we'll see you returned to your rightful masters."
The conversation she's having with herself slows, and she looks at you with cold calculation in her eyes. There's lying and there's lying, mortal. And right now, only one of us is guilty of that. What're you hiding? You're not going to take me back to the Sarini's at all, are you? Well, to be honest, I don't care if I go back to them or not. Just get me out of my contract with them, and I'll leave on my own accord - straight back to Hell, and I'll be back on your plane with a new contract in no time at all.
Nerris pops into the cafe and quietly whispers to Laria,"Hey... We need to talk. There is something weird in tunnel and I wonder if you have any information... "
Laria finishes smiling at her latest customer, then turns to Nerris with a more serious expression. Right now? All right. Just give me a few minutes... After getting her staff in place and waiting for a bit of a lull, she comes to the back room with you and says, All right, what's this about?
" Well we found this imp who was apparently in contract with house Sarini. Do you have any idea how they got there? "
Orrias covers his concern with a derisive snort. "Very good, imp. No, I don't particularly care whether you get back to the Sarini or not. So let's strike a deal, you and I...a gentleman's agreement, if you will."
Seating himself on the box, he keeps his eyes on the imp but makes no effort to try and make her more comfortable.
"Let's start with how your contract got into the hands of these rebels. Nothing in our intelligence suggests that they have any connection at all to the Sarini. Tell me that, where & how to find your contract, and one secret I can make use of in this damnable city and I shall work to dissolve your contract. Seem fair?"
Alexite watches the exchange carefully. But he leaves the talking (at this point) to Orrias.
Indra (naturally) has her hate glare on. It's hard to tell who it's directed at as she lies on the floor in manacles.
Laria almost hisses when Nerris says "Sarini" and reflexively looks around, as though someone would suddenly pop out of the woodwork at her. No. No, I'm sorry, I don't know how it would have gotten in. A barely perceptible shudder passes through her. Look, the Sarini's are almost the worst of the worst among the nobility - but they haven't been anywhere near here. I would know: I know how many are in the city right now, and I know where they are. Trust me, if it got in here, it's from something else, not by getting dropped off.
-----
Meanwhile, downstairs the imp gives Orrias a hard look. My master, Merindius Sarini, died in a failed attempt to ambush one of the rebels, one of the Silver Ravens, the one called Jackdaw. His death got covered up by the rebels, made it look like a drowning, and took some of his papers to cover their trail. My contract was in there. I spent a while harrying the Ravens as best I could, hoping to get them to turn over the contract to someone else, or even destroy it. But then they just left, thinking the hideout haunted, and left my contract behind. Then I waited. I've got no idea how long it's been. But suddenly, here they were, new rebels, and they picked up my contract. When they made their way here, I had to follow, of course, and I've been making it hard on them ever since. Almost got a wall to fall on one of them, too.
She inclines her head towards the back room, where Rexus' pile of papers stand. You're just a guard. Without me, you'll never find it. Never - unless you can somehow detect magical auras? And secrets? Here? I've been stuck down underground three times longer than you've been alive. Any secrets I once new are bound to have expired, thanks to your ridiculously short mortal lives. Now cut me loose, and get me out of this ridiculous sewer!
After a long moment of consideration, Orrias decides he's gotten as much as he's going to get out of the imp. "I thank you for your cooperation, such as it is." Walking over to the stack of documents he carries the stack back over to the door.
Dropping his accent, he informs Alexite and Indra, "I'm going to take these to Pip and see what we can make of them, I don't think we'll get much more out of her. She's all yours." the disguised elf then steps out of the room.
Since an uppity slip and the Dottari go together as well as a Thrune and decency, Pip has done well to keep out of sight, lest he spoil the charade. Thus, he had followed Nerris when she returned to the coffeehouse to check in with Laria. Pip needs little excuse to place himself in the company of Miss Longroad. Of course, he thinks (with a smile) how Soria would tease him in her sing-song way if she thought her little step-brother had a crush.
When Orrias arrives with the stack of papers, Pip quickly pushes him back into the rear of the coffeehouse. He doesn't want the elf's disguise to frighten the customers.
"Okay, let me see what we have here," Pip says, spreading the array of papers across the flat top of a broad barrel. He pauses for a time, sweeping his eyes across their inked surfaces, before declaring, "These are documents, all right. That'll be three sails."
Pip briefly extends his open, awaiting palm before waving off his friend jokingly. He then furrows his brow as he actually gets to work. He starts to rifle through the documents looking for clues, but when Orrias mentions the imp's suggestion of looking for magical auras, he gets a better idea.
"Make sure the door's closed," he says to Orrias with a nod of his head. Once their privacy is assured, Pip conjures a bit of magic to glean which of these sheets may be enchanted.
Peering over the halfling's shoulder, Orrias helps sort the documents and check for unusual patterns or other clues.
"By which you mean, uh...kill her?" Alexite asks quickly, as quietly as possible.
"If you can scare something else useful out of her, so much the better, but she's been down here so long..." the elf gives Alexite an uncertain look. "She's a denizen of Hell and unrepentant, but after the Saltworks I'd prefer not to execute anyone.